Lt. Gov: Unions 'weaponized' recall

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch is charging that unions have “weaponized” the recall election in Wisconsin, but she says she’s determined to win her battle and protect Gov. Scott Walker from dealing with an organized labor “boss” who will undermine him at every turn over the next two years.

Kleefisch, 36, hasn’t been in politics for long — her first attempt was her successful campaign just two years ago — but she’s already making history as the first lieutenant governor to ever face a recall. And if she loses in the separate June 5 lieutenant governor’s recall election to her expected challenger Mahlon Mitchell, the president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, Kleefisch warned that “big union bosses” will use the post as a “bully pulpit” to dominate the state’s government.

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“I understand that the biggest priority here is to save Scott Walker, but it is essential that Scott Walker have his best partner in the lieutenant governor’s office,” Kleefisch told POLITICO in an interview. “If he instead has a union boss in the lieutenant governor’s office – our governor who wants nothing more than to see our state prosper and have the future of our children looked after – our governor will face non-stop harassment and our media will elevate this to a two-year gubernatorial debate on the nightly news.”

And the result of her election will do much more than simply define whether it will be “big union bosses” or “we, the people” who run Wisconsin, the tea party favorite said. The historic race, along with the governor’s recall, offers a “game changer, a momentum determiner” for the 2012 presidential election, Kleefisch said.

“Wisconsin is a purple state — this is going to be a focus of the presidential candidates so we need to make sure that momentum is on the side of our Republican nominee,” she said. “The best, most effective way to build momentum is to win this recall on June 5.”

But in Kleefisch’s race to hold onto her seat, there’s a critical quirk in Wisconsin’s constitution: since 1967 governors and lieutenant governors have been elected together as a slate, but there’s no dual ticket for a recall. And that means although Kleefisch was elected with Walker in 2010, she’s facing a separate recall this year.

“No one at that point in American history had weaponized the recall function,” she said. “And that’s what we’re looking at in Wisconsin now — non-stop recalls.”

While Kleefisch and Walker will campaign together, she’s very much a separate question on people’s ballots — and on their donation checks. And with many people still under the assumption that a vote or a dollar for Walker is the same as one for her, it’s a major concern for Kleefisch’s self-described “little campaign.”